EXCLUSIVE| Ganjam Police Bust Illegal Gunmaking Unit In Bhanjanagar, What Big New Trend it Signals to Odisha Police?

Bhubaneswar: Ganjam SP on Saturday revealed that Tarasingi police have busted an illegal firearms manufacturing and supply racket and arrested three persons in connection with a case registered under the Arms Act.

The accused have been identified in the investigation as allegedly involved in manufacturing and supplying illegal firearms to customers for monetary gain. Police seized five finished single-barrel muzzle-loading (SBML) guns along with machinery and tools used for manufacturing firearms.

The breakthrough assumes greater significance as Odisha heads into the autumn festive season, when large public gatherings, processions and increased movement across rural areas put additional pressure on the police machinery. The timing of the seizure has also brought the issue of illegal firearms into sharper focus, particularly in southern Odisha, where police have repeatedly uncovered clandestine weapons-making units.

Bhanjanagar’s recurring gunmaking trail

The Tarasingi operation is far from an isolated case in the Bhanjanagar subdivision. Police records and previous crackdowns show that the wider Ganjam region has repeatedly emerged as a source of country-made firearms over several decades.

Just weeks before the latest operation, Ganjam Police had busted another illegal firearms manufacturing unit deep inside the Siarimala forest near Buguda, recovering firearms and manufacturing machinery. Similar operations have also surfaced in Polasara and Jagannathprasad, indicating that the problem is not confined to a single village or police-station area.

What stands out in the latest Tarasingi case, however, is the nature of the equipment recovered. The unit allegedly operated with electric hammer machines, drill machines, blowers, cutters and vice presses – equipment that points to a shift from traditional, labour-intensive blacksmithing towards a more mechanised form of clandestine production.

The arrested trio – Pagala Muli, 65, Prasanna, 34, and Tukuna Muli, 30 – also brings another dimension into focus: the passing of illicit firearms-making skills across generations. The age profile of the accused indicates how such knowledge can remain embedded within families and local networks rather than depending entirely on outside criminal syndicates.

The worrying crime trend Odisha Police now have to watch

The biggest concern emerging from the bust is not merely the recovery of five guns but the changing character of the manufacturing ecosystem.

The seized equipment suggests that some local units no longer depend solely on crude manual forging.

Electric-powered machinery can make the manufacturing process faster and allow components to be produced with greater consistency. At the same time, such equipment can be concealed in relatively small rural premises, making these units harder to detect than conventional workshops.

This has potentially widened the reach of the underground firearms market. The material gathered in the case points towards a network in which country-made weapons can serve different local criminal demands, including poaching and local criminal activity, while also moving across district boundaries. Police sources reveals that the movement seems to be towards Gajapati, Kandhamal and Rayagada.

The timing is equally important. The coming Durga Puja, Laxmi Puja and Kumar Purnima period will see large gatherings, crowded markets, processions and heightened cash circulation. There is the possibility of firearms being sought for intimidation, local disputes, extortion and other criminal activities during the festive cycle.

For Odisha Police, therefore, the challenge is moving beyond the traditional approach of seizing finished weapons. The repeated discovery of manufacturing units raises the need to identify the supply chains for raw materials, machinery, skilled manpower, buyers and inter-district movement.

Where Odisha's gunmaking trail has surfaced

The state's illegal firearms landscape, based on the material available, can broadly be divided into traditional forest-fringe manufacturing pockets and newer urban/semi-urban manufacturing or distribution points.

The broader picture, therefore, is one of multiple small nodes rather than one single giant factory. The Bhanjanagar-Ganjam belt remains the most persistent traditional manufacturing zone identified in the police records, while recent cases show that the illegal firearms economy has also found space in urban and semi-urban settings.
For the police, the Tarasingi seizure consequently offers more than a successful Arms Act case: it provides another window into how a long-running local weapons-making tradition is adapting to modern tools and continuing to feed an underground firearms market, as this modern tools can scale up the arms production in a significant way.
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